1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a shoe, more particularly to a shoe having a hollow insole component.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known to provide a shoe with waterproof breathable characteristics by disposing a sock-like waterproof breathable lining inside a non-waterproof breathable shoe. Such a waterproof breathable lining typically has a closed bottom to cover a wearer""s foot and is liable to break at its closed bottom due to stress induced by the wearer""s foot.
The prior art also suggests a waterproof breathable lining having a bottom open end to be secured to an insole of a shoe by adhesive bonding. Various methods are available in the art for securing the bottom open end of the lining to the insole so as to provide sufficient waterproof characteristics between the insole and the lining. However, these methods are generally laborious and time consuming.
To address the problem encountered with the securing of the bottom open end of a lining, U.S. Pat. No. 6,412,193 B1 suggests a shoe having a waterproof breathable lining 2 having a bottom open end positioned to an upward flange of a hollow sole pad 3 secured to the bottom of an upper 1 of the shoe, as shown in FIG. 1. Since the bottom open end of the lining is positioned above the top face of the sole pad 3, the assembling of the lining 2 is simplified, and the problem of breaking the lining 2 due to the stress induced by the wearer""s foot can be alleviated. However, since the sole pad 3 disclosed therein is a one-piece hollow member which is injection molded, a lot of differently sized molds are required to produce varying sizes of the sole pads, thereby increasing the manufacturing costs. It is desirable to manufacture various sizes of the hollow sole pads without the need to use a large number of molds. An approach is to form the hollow sole pad by looping an elongated strip.
Welted shoe systems utilizing strips are known in the art. These strips are typically stitched to an insole, an outsole and an upper. Examples of the welted shoe systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,201,383 and 2,039,287. In these welted shoes, while upward flanges are formed in strips, the flanges are not suggested to support a bottom end of a lining and to keep the lining bottom end above the top surface of an insole, and the strips are not contemplated to be used as an insole component.
An object of the invention is to provide a shoe which has a hollow insole component formed by looping an elongated strip and which permits varying of the size of the insole component by changing the length of the strip.
Another object of the invention is to provide shoes which can be produced using a simplified method that can provide different sizes of hollow insole components without the need to use a large number of differently sized molds.
Accordingly, a shoe according to the present invention comprises: a hollow insole component including a horizontal part with an inner peripheral end confining an opening and an upward flange extending upward from a top face of the horizontal part; an upper disposed above the insole component and having a bottom open end extending around the upward flange and attached to the horizontal part; and a lining mounted within the upper and having a bottom open end attached to the upward flange, wherein the hollow insole component is made by forming an elongated strip into a loop, and the insole component has a connection joint extending transversely of the insole component.